Music is a universal language that knows no boundaries. It is a powerful way of uniting people and is surely a part of our life.
The word “music” comes from the Muses, goddesses of the arts in Greek mythology.
Here is a list of amazing facts about music that will surely amaze you!
Fact #1 Music Helps Learn Better
Music greatly impacts and boosts our learning capabilities. Listening to music, while reading or learning something could trigger the learning and you can memorize the stuff in a better way as compared to being in complete silence.
Music helps us to attain concentration and focus and this state helps us to process and learn more information than usual. It helps you to motivate and perform the task more efficiently.
Fact #2 Workout
Music helps to improve your efficiency when you hit the gym for a workout. Different studies have given many reasons for this.
While doing workouts music acts as a distraction thereby diverting the mind from fatigue and exertion and making the overall workout pleasurable.
Music helps to cheer up your mood. Researchers have found that music helps you to think about yourself and escape negative thoughts and thus powers up your workout.
Fact #3 Regular music listening could alter the mind
It is a fact that the brain has a wonderful ability to alter its size and conditions along with time, the changes are related to the learning and connections between the neurons. According to a study, it is concluded that the volume of the cortex (grey matter) is highest in professional musicians, intermediate in armature musicians, and low in non-musicians.
Fact #4 Favorite song selection is linked with emotional mood
The top favorite song in your playlist is not your favorite because it has the beats, lyrics, or the singer whom you like the most. But your favorite song is your favorite because it associates an emotional event or any memory related to the song. The whole playlist probably depicts your emotional condition or any particular occurrence or experience.
We generally like the original version of the song. This happens not because it’s better, it happens because we heard it first.
Fact #5 Heartbeat Changes Along with the Musical Notes
Researchers found a very amazing fact about music that; the heartbeat mimics the musical beats. Our heartbeat, blood pressure, and respiration synchronize with musical beats and tempo. The music could trigger the heartbeat, blood pressure, nerve contraction, and relaxation along with it.
In short, we can conclude that our whole body reacts to music to a greater level. Whether it is about the physical or psychological; the music does have a great effect on you.
Fact #6 Music Makes Us Happy or Sad
Music and our moods are very closely related. Music helps us to change our moods, increase our focus, and even motivates us.
Researchers at the University of Groningen have found that listening to any particular type of music or song whether happy or sad could change the way one sees the world. Music not only affects your mood in general but also affects your perception also.
Fact #7 Life Expectancy
A very disturbing fact revealed by the study of a Sydney-based university is that Pop and rock stars die very young as compared to average general people.
The study deduced that musicians die up to 25 younger than average general people. They also found that musicians and rock stars have 10 times greater chances of death by accident, suicide, and homicide.
Rock star’s average life expectancy is almost the same as that of Zimbabweans, which happens to be lowest on the Earth.
Fact #8 Costliest Music instruments
In 2011, the Lady Blunt Stradivarius violin was sold for a record price of US$15.9 million. It holds the world record for the most expensive musical instrument.
This Violin was auctioned by the Nippon Music Foundation to raise money for Japanese earthquake and tsunami victims.
The World’s most successful electric guitar telecaster and Stratocaster were invented by Leo Fender. But he couldn’t play the guitar himself. He was not a musician, he was an engineer. So he had to call musicians to test his prototypes.
Fact #9 Metallica
Metallica got its name listed in the Guinness Book of World Records for playing on all seven continents. They are the first and only band to do so.
Metallica set this record after they performed at Carlini Station, Antarctica in front of 120 scientists and some competition winners.
Fact #10 Music Therapy
Music is the best exercise for the brain and activates every part of the brain. Music therapy has been used from last so many years to treat different neurological conditions and it has proved to be very helpful.
Music therapy is widely used to help patients with Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s. Music can help patients recall personal memories, fight depression and anxiety.
Some Random and Bizarre Facts about Music
- Songs that get stuck in your head are called earworms and the best way to get rid of it is to get a new one stuck in there.
- Researchers at the University of Leicester found that cows produce 3% more milk when they listen to relaxing music.
- Scientists in South Korea proved that playing music, especially classical to plants helps them grow faster.
- It is a well-proven fact that loud music increases the speed of drinking and the amount of alcohol intake at the bar.
- ‘Jimi Hendrix’ and ‘The Beatles’ couldn’t read or write music.
- Britney Spears hit songs like Oops! I Did It Again and Baby One More Time are used by the British Navy to scare off Somali pirates.
- In 2015, Canadian Astronaut Chris Hadfield announced the release of his first album of songs recorded entirely in the space.
- Benjamin Franklin invented his own harmonica and it became so famous in Europe that Mozart and Beethoven composed music for it.
- Finland has more heavy metal bands per capita than any other country in the world. Finland is followed by Sweden and Norway. It’s very strange that the US and UK where most of the metal music and bands started fared very low compared to Finland and even Sweden and Norway.
- In 1994, on New Year’s Eve, rock superstar Rod Stewart performed at the largest-ever free rock concert at Copacabana Beach, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The concert attracted a massive audience of 4.2 million people.
- Queen, Bob Marley, Jimi Hendrix, and Tupac never won a Grammy, while Milli Vanilli and Justin Bieber did.
- The Spice Girls “Wannabe” is the catchiest pop song since the 1940s. The average listener just took 2.29 seconds to recognize it making it the easiest song to recognize; according to an online test called “Hooked on Music”
- During the early days of the modern Olympic Games from 1912 to 1948 painters, sculptors, writers, and musicians battled for gold, silver, and bronze. Music, painting, poetry, literature, and architecture all used to be a part of the modern Olympic Games.
